Labor Day Fun Facts

Cheers to your well-earned holiday! All of us look forward to that long weekend every September when we get the chance to sit back, relax, and enjoy our well-earned break as hard workers. Aside from getting the chance to spend time with family and friends, we also tend to pack this weekend with barbecues, picnics, road trips, and other kinds of activities to celebrate the end of the summer season. But what do you know about Labor Day aside from being a heaven-sent opportunity to play hard after working hard? Forbes lists down 10 facts about this federal holiday we are all celebrating today:

1. The Labor Day movement originated from Toronto, Canada in 1872 and made its way south to the U.S.; it was a demonstration meant to demand rights for workers.

2. New York City celebrated the U.S.' first Labor Day in September 5, 1882. Ten thousand workers went on unpaid leave to join the march from the City Hall to Wendel's Elm Park at 92nd Street and 9th Avenue, where concerts, speeches, and picnics awaited.

3. The first state to declare Labor Day as a holiday is Oregon (in 1887).

4. Congress passed an act making every first Monday of September a legal holiday in the D.C. area and its surrounding territories on June 28, 1894.

5. The U.S. work force comprises of approximately 160 million men and women. Kudos to their hard work!

6. If you lived in the 1800s, you would have worked 12 hours every day, seven days a week, for a minimum wage. Child workers aged 5 to 6 are a common sight in factories and mines.

7. The Adamson Act, passed into law in 1916, established the 8-hour work day and thereby regulated the number of work hours in private companies.

8. Tradition dictates you avoid wearing seersucker clothes or anything white after Labor Day as the event also symbolizes the end of summer.

9. Labor Day marks the start of the football season, with teams playing their first game of the year during Labor Day weekend.

10. Labor Day, as the end of the summer, is also the back-to-school kickoff that students hate the most!

If you are a hard worker (and you know you are!) take the time to enjoy this break because you deserve it! And at the same time, think good thoughts about all the other hard workers in the country who make the U.S. the great country that it is today!

You can access the original Forbes.com article by clicking on this link.